The college basketball offseason is here, and we decided to have some fun over the next few months, ranking ALL 364 teams in D1. Number 334 is USC Upstate basketball.
Before you say we’re crazy – or that all of this is up for debate, let’s go over the very intricate process of how we came to this conclusion. We took a very statistical approach – with the help of Chat GPT – taking into consideration everything from March Madness wins and finishes, to AP Poll appearances, to conference players of the year. And then, a good friend of ours, Scott Blanchard, took our approach to the MAX.
Click here to visit the FIRST article, which explains how the formula works!
Here’s the breakdown of USC Upstate basketball!
NCAA Tournament Success
- Championships: 0
- Finals appearances: 0
- Final Fours: 0
- Elite Eights: 0
- Sweet 16s: 0
- NCAA wins: 0
- Bids: 0
Consistency Over Time
- Wins per season: 11.8
- Bids per season: 0
- AP Polls: 0
Player Quality & Talent
- All-Americans: 0
- NBA players drafted & played: 1
- Conference Players of the Year: 2
Conference & Other Success
- Conference regular season titles: 0
- Conference tournament titles: 0
- NIT titles: 0
- Other tournament titles: 0
Overall scoop on USC Upstate basketball
In only 19 years in Division I, USC Upstate basketball already has a few notable pieces of history – even without an NCAA Tournament bid.
In their early years, they showed some promise, winning 21 games in 2011-12 and 24 in 2014-15. Eddie Payne was the head coach, and the program also saw two players win Atlantic Sun Player of the Year. Torrey Craig did it in 2012 and Ty Greene in 2015. Both were on the 2012 roster and helped lead the Spartans to a 13-5 conference record. However, they fell in the first round of the conference tournament. In 2015, they only went 8-6 in conference, but went to the Atlantic Sun Tournament finals, losing to North Florida.
Since that 2015 season, the Spartans have only had one winning season, coming in 2017, which was also Payne’s last year as the head coach. USC Upstate would also move to the Big South in 2018, but life hasn’t been easy.
Surprisingly, despite Craig’s future NBA career, he went undrafted, which doesn’t count toward our rankings. But they did have an NBA pick long before they became DI – Mike Gibson. He played 32 games each with the Washington Bullets and Detroit Pistons in the mid-1980s.
So, for a program almost 20 years in and without a trip to the big dance, some interesting tidbits from the past. They’re just hoping to get back to the Eddie Payne days.